


Adventures of Tullsand

by Triple_deity



Category: The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: D&D, Fighting, Other, Sword Fighting, dnd
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24695449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Triple_deity/pseuds/Triple_deity
Summary: Young Ponyboy is a half elf taking on an army of Drows with his brothers and friends; a ghost, a cat-folk, a leshay, and a dragonborn. Will he succeed?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Adventures of Tullsand

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to see how well this could do for the moment. I will be updating the chapter at a later time.

The sun shined brightly in the big city of Tullsand. In fact, white golden rays never shone so heavy and steadily over the land. It cut through all the branches of the surrounding red cedars and rose above their canopies in a great wave of light. It warmed the young half elf as he hurried along the beaten path he created so long ago. He had made a bad decision, as he always did on accident, and wore the wrong type of clothes out here in the summer heat. He wanted to look nice for this occasion so he settled on a white, puffy, long sleeved, V neck shirt with string around the collar, his usual dark tights and belt, with his freshly cleaned leather boots. He’s sweating now, sadly staining his clothes already. He tries to calm down but he’s running late and the satchel he’s carrying with him is hitting against his spine with every sprint. With a pained expression on his youthful face, he hurries on.

Despite being good at, and often practicing running, he is winded by the time he reaches the slightly open space that’s hidden behind the evergreen trees of this place. The entire enclosure is trimmed with a fairy circle. The young man steps into the circle, being mindful not to harm the mushrooms beneath himself as he crosses from natural to charmed land. He raises his gaze to his best friend who has been waiting for him.

“You’re late.”

“I know.” He replies with a smile. He drops his bag and strides over, into his friend’s arms. 

“Oh, Ponyboy.” His friend laughs, stroking his sweaty auburn hair. “You’re so sweet.” 

Ponyboy smiles even wider and looks up just a bit with his chin resting on his pal’s collar bone. 

“I’m tough, not sweet, Johnny.” He corrects as he stands completely upright again. 

“Of course.” Johnny agrees.

Ponyboy’s emerald green eyes glimmer in the light. His milky skin remains a bit tanned from being out in the July sun for these long periods of time. His lengthy red hair falls in its place about his face and nape. His strawberry lips and white teeth smile wide. His small, yet slightly muscular frame is growing more and more charming by the year, at least from Johnny’s observation. His slightly pointed ears make Johnny giggle. They stick out so much and give him away, otherwise he could pass as a human. 

“You look so happy. I missed you.” Johnny says.

Johnny’s black hair moves gently as he does. His skin is dark yet pale and see through, along with his burned and ragged shirt and pants. His skin in some places look just as burned and smoldered as his clothes. While his eyes are completely white, he still manages to express happiness in them. 

About half a decade ago, Ponyboy was outside playing and he wandered off into the woods beyond his house. After getting lost deep in the forest, he stumbled upon this circle of mushrooms, not knowing of what that meant. The land inside the ring of mushrooms was charmed and kept as a safe haven to divine beings. He almost began to destroy the fungi until he was told to stop by Johnny. At first, it was frightening. To suddenly and magically see a ghost in the woods was almost traumatic. Ponyboy however soon saw that Johnny was of no threat and was as sweet as honey. Johnny explained that the ring beholds magic then welcomed him in after learning that Pony was in fact a half elf. Ponyboy then was told the story of how Johnny was once human and was burned alive in a temple after trying to save some kids from dying inside. Before that, Johnny lived a gruesome, tiring life and was misunderstood for too long. It kept him from moving on and resting in peace. What kept him here was bad experiences and painful memories, but how to move on was a mystery. How does one truly move on from such things?

“What did you bring?” Johnny asks as his feet hover above the grass while he walks to the bag on the ground. 

“Look inside.” Pony smiles. Having a cocky look on his face wasn’t the best thing for humanity. 

Johnny, looking over his shoulder once more as he bends down, grasps the bag in his ghostly fist and brings it closer. He pushes the cloth top off and peers inside. He drops it, his white eyes dart to the proud elven teen. 

“Armor? Why? Where did you get it?”

“The market. Some man who had popped off to his worker threw it out. He said he ruined it, but he didn’t. Look!” Ponyboy hurries over and pulls out the dark brown leather breastplate and plackart. He hurries to put it on to show his phantom friend. When he gets it on, he looks different and it bothers Johnny. 

“Ponyboy, why did you take it?” Johnny asks, with gloom mixed with heavy concern in his voice.

“The Drows, the dark elves are taking over. You know that-”

“No!” Johnny demands, wanting to put a stop to this immediately. 

“You don’t think I should have protection?!”

“I know you won’t leave it at that!”

“They hurt you too!”

“That shouldn’t mean you get into it with them!” 

Ponyboy sighs and drops his shoulders. His face twists into one of great thought as he takes off his amour. 

“Tell me again.”

“Tell you what?” Johnny asks as he relaxes too.

“The story. Why you’re out here.” Pony says.

There’s a bit of silence as Johnny gives in. 

  
  


They walk a mile more into the woods and come across it, the house that resembles more of a shed than anything else. It was Johnny’s home. 

“I grew up here. My father built this house and kept my mother and I in the dark, far away from the city so no one could hear us scream.” Johnny begins. Pony watches him however a bit higher, already becoming emotional. “I would run away, try to find solace in the trees. I found the fairy circle one day and decided to charm it with a bit of blood magic. I would go out and bury gems and bones to keep it active and charged. It was the one place I loved. But I grew weary of it once. I was sixteen and I made the choice to leave home and go into the city. I was faced with immediate beauty when I saw the buildings and street lights. There was road and water and houses. People.” Johnny swallows hard, feeling shaky as he recalls his first glimpse at independence. 

“I continued and enjoyed myself. I went to see a show being performed and someone handed me a drink. I never met anyone else but I foolishly trusted him for some reason. So I drank it and it made me dizzy. I decided to come home because I was too light headed and the show had ended. I didn’t remember the walk home until I was inside the treeline again. I was almost home, about a mile and a half outward when I was jumped. There were so many of them, dark, pale and angry with your pointed ears. They beat me half to death. I earned a scar across my cheek that day. It all sealed my death date that night. From then on, my life remained disturbed. Even though I died in the fire in the temple outside of Tullsand, I remain unable to rest. My soul is stuck here in the forest because all that happened occured out here.” Johnny finishes and remains staring at the shed. “They died too, but I have never seen them.” He says, referring to his parents. 

Ponyboy nods and lowers his gaze. 

“It was a Drow.” Pony mumbles. “And it hasn’t stopped. Many people I know have gotten hurt by them-”

“If you put that armor on, they’ll see you as a target, Ponyboy.” Johnny spits, turning his head to him. “They’ll want to see just how penetrable it is.”

Ponyboy closes his mouth for a moment, thinking of how right he could be.

“I just want you to be at rest-”

“Fighting a Drow won’t be the answer.” Johnny says again. He gives a sigh. “You should go home, your brothers must be missing you. Be sure to ditch that leather when you get back. They’ll be on you more than I am.”

Pony nods and begins his walk back home with Johnny by his side until they reach the ending of the treeline. When they find it, Pony turns around and Johnny is nowhere to be seen. 

  
  


“She was amazing, her hands like silk.” Twobit spits to his friend, Steve, who is trying to ignore him and makes a disgusted sound. 

“I really don’t care.” The catfolk says as he shakes his head. The dragonborn pushes on. 

“I swear I could almost breathe fire.” He declares as he relaxes down on the floor, the coffee table in front of him with the couch behind him. 

“You’re one-eighth dragonborn, the rest of you is human, you can’t breathe fire, dumbass.” Steve persists from his seat on the far right cushion of the sofa.

“And what are you again, feline?” Twobit asks with a smirk.

“One-fourth catfolk.” He says with a twitch in his lion tale. He pushes his blonde hair back and scratches his cat ear with his hand. “I’m still more humanoid than not.” 

“Is diversity day over yet?” Dallas asks as he carries in a pint from the kitchen to the middle seat of the couch. 

“Oh, wise words from the LeShay, you don’t want to talk about your race?” Twobit asks, deciding to pick up Dally’s beer the second he sets it down on the coffee table.

“Drink it and I’ll beat you fucking senseless.” Dallas says, remaining still in his newly found, comfortable position on the sofa beside the big lug.

“Is that a threat or promise?” Twobit asks, not daring to take a sip.

“It’s whatever the fuck you want it to be.” Dallas says as he lays his head back on the wall and closes his eyes. He knows Twobit won’t drink a drop.

Ponyboy comes in, sweating and now annoyed that people are in his house. 

“Don’t you people have jobs?” Pony asks as he holds his bag to the side, not wanting anyone to get a look at what is in it. 

“I’m off today, brat.” Steve says while keeping his eyes glued to his own glass of beer.

“Woah.” Twobit pauses as he looks up. “Why are you so… what are you wearing?” This makes even Dallas open one eye. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Ponyboy spits as he hurries to his room and shuts the door behind himself. Sodapop isn’t in their shared room, which means he must be busy, which means that Ponyboy has at least a couple minutes for himself here.

He drops his bag and takes out his armor. He goes to his closet, opens the door and kneels down. He crawls a bit inside, now on his hands and knees. He reaches out and pulls a pile of folded blankets off of a metal, locked trunk. This trunk once contained family heirlooms but after Ponyboy’s parents died, he and his brother’s had to sell everything inside of it. That was a couple months ago, his two brothers still think nothing is inside of it, but secretly Ponyboy has been collecting items, starting his inventory for these past three months. When his parents died, something in Ponyboy changed. He simply felt anger and too much disappointment. He hated that the Drows were above him, his family, his friends, and were the reason his best friend couldn’t move on into a heavenly place. Now, he’s secretly harboring a good sized collection of powerful magical items. He knows his brothers would freak if they saw it, so he keeps the blankets over it to keep anyone from really thinking about it, just on the off chance that they come into the closet for any reason at all. Ponyboy opens the trunk, looking at all of his items for only a small moment before gently placing the armor inside and closing the lid. He locks it back and positions the blankets back on top of the lids surface. He steps out of the closet and shuts it, taking a big deep breath. 

The bedroom door opens and his brother comes in. Ponyboy jumps, very obviously spooked. Sodapop pauses, confused on why he’s so frazzled.

“Woah, clam down, man. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Sodapop jokes as he walks to the dresser in nothing but a towel, having just gotten a bath. Ponyboy nods, taking notice that his brother is getting dressed. He decides to do the opposite and get out of this idiotic formal shirt. 

He settles in with a violet short sleeved shirt and removes his boots. He slips around the house in his socks and finds the last seat on the couch beside Dallas and behind Twobit’s back. 

“So, how was your day, Ponyboy?” Twobit asks, scratching as the blue scales under his chin. Twobit has a humanoid figure, face, and limbs. He is very human except when it came to his eyes, the various random patches of scales on his body, and one very important appendage. However, he is quite proud of that specific detail, seems having human privates simply isn’t fun enough. Twobit can’t do anything special though. He can’t breathe fire, nor fly or is very strong, or look intimidating at all. He learned to accept this however.

“It was fine.” Ponyboy says as he shifts his gaze to Twobit’s clothes. He’s wearing brown pants with his black flax shoes and green button down shirt with the gold trim. It might’ve sounded fancy with the trim, but it was worn in so horribly, it was nothing shy of a normal lounging shirt. 


End file.
